Griselda Blanco

Griselda Blanco Restrepo (February 14, 1943 – September 3, 2012), known as the Black Widow or Cocaine Godmother, was a Colombian drug lord who was prominent in the cocaine-based drug trade and underworld of Miami, Florida, during the 1970s through the early 2000s, and who has also been claimed by some to have been part of the Medellín Cartel. She was shot dead on September 3, 2012, aged 69.
Biography
Early life
Griselda Blanco Restrepo was born in Cartagena on the country's north coast. She and her mother, Ana Blanco, moved to Medellín when she was three years old, and this move exposed her to a criminal lifestyle at an early age. Blanco's former lover, Charles Cosby, recounted that at the age of 11 she allegedly kidnapped, attempted to ransom and eventually shot a child from an upscale flatland neighborhood near her own neighborhood. Blanco had become a pickpocket before she even turned 13. To escape the sexual assaults of her mother's boyfriend, she ran away from home at the age of 19 and resorted to looting in Medellín until the age of 20. It is also speculated that she engaged in prostitution to support herself financially during this time, although Blanco denied this allegation.
Drug business
Blanco was a figure in the drug trade from Colombia to Miami, New York and California.
In 1964, she illegally immigrated to the United States with false passports and settled in Queens, New York, with her four children and husband. She established a sizable cocaine business there and in April 1975, she was indicted on federal drug conspiracy charges along with 30 of her subordinates. She fled to Colombia before she could be arrested, but returned to the United States and settled in Miami in the late 1970s.
Her return more or less coincided with the beginning of public violent conflicts, including hundreds of murders and killings yearly associated with the high crime epidemic that swept the City of Miami in the 1980s. The struggle by law enforcement to put an end to the influx of cocaine into Miami led to the creation of CENTAC 26 (Central Tactical Unit), a joint operation between the Miami-Dade Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) anti-drug operation.
Blanco was involved in the drug-related violence known as the Miami Drug War or the Cocaine Cowboy Wars that plagued Miami in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This was a period when cocaine was trafficked more than cannabis.
The distribution network, which spanned the United States, earned $80 million per month.
Arrest
On February 17, 1985, Blanco was arrested in her home by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and charged with conspiring to manufacture, import, and distribute cocaine. The case went to trial in federal court in New York City where she was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years.
While serving her sentence, she was charged with three counts of first degree murder by the state of Florida. The prosecution made a deal with one of Blanco's most trusted hitmen, Jorge Ayala, who agreed to testify against her. However, the case collapsed due to technicalities relating to a phone sex scandal between Ayala and two female secretaries who worked in the state attorney’s office. In 1998, Blanco pleaded guilty to three counts of second degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, to run concurrently. In 2002, Blanco suffered a heart attack in prison.
In 2004, she was released and deported to Medellín, where she lived a quiet life. Before her murder in 2012, she was last seen in May 2007 at Bogotá Airport.
Death
On September 3, 2012, Blanco and her pregnant daughter-in-law bought $150 worth of meat at Cardiso butcher shop on the corner of 29th Street in Medellín. As she exited, an assassin on a motorcycle shot her twice, killing her. The drive-by motorcycle shooting mimicked the same assassination style that Blanco was often credited with introducing to Miami during her drug reign.
Personal life
Blanco had four husbands and four children over the course of her life. She and her first husband, Carlos Trujillo, had three sons together in Medellín, all born before Blanco turned 21.
Blanco had her youngest son, Michael Corleone Blanco, with her third husband, Darío Sepúlveda. Sepúlveda left her in 1983, returned to Colombia, and kidnapped Michael when he and Blanco disagreed over who would have custody. Blanco paid to have Sepúlveda assassinated in Colombia, and her son returned to her in the US.
According to the Miami New Times, "Michael's father and older siblings were all killed before he reached adulthood. His mother was in prison for most of his childhood and teenage years, and he was raised by his maternal grandmother and legal guardians." In 2012, Michael was put under house arrest after a sentencing on two felony counts of cocaine trafficking and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. He appeared on a 2018 episode of the Investigation Discovery documentary series, Evil Lives Here, to recount his lonely childhood. In 2019, he was featured in the VH1 docuseries Cartel Crew, which follows the descendants of drug lords. He also runs a clothing brand, "Puro Blanco".
According to Michael, his mother became a born-again Christian.
Popular culture
Blanco has been featured in multiple documentaries, series, films, and songs, including several forthcoming projects, including:
In the 2012 Meek Mill song “Believe It,” Rick Ross states, “Rest in peace Griselda Blanco.”
In Nicki Minaj's unofficial 2019 remix of DaBaby's "Suge (song)," Minaj references Blanco in her opening line.
In a television biographical film Cocaine Godmother, which premiered in 2018 on the Lifetime channel, Blanco is portrayed by Catherine Zeta-Jones.
there were plans to produce a film titled The Godmother, starring Jennifer Lopez as Blanco.
Blanco is to be portrayed by the Colombian-American actress Sofia Vergara in a Netflix limited series titled Griselda, announced in November 2021; the series is set to air on Netflix in January 2024.
"Griselda Blanco", a song by Toronto Drill rappers Pengz and Two Two, was certified Platinum in Canada.
The record label Griselda Records draws its name from Griselda Blanco.
Korean-Canadian rapper Paul Blanco created his stage name after Griselda Blanco, following Chicago drill rappers' trend of having drug lord rap names.
See also
List of people deported or removed from the United States
Enedina Arellano Félix another well-known female drug trafficker
References
Sources
Pablo Escobar and Colombian Narcoculture by Aldona Bialowas Pobutsky
External links
Griselda Blanco pagina web Link may not work (last checked 2.April, 2017)
Washington Post: Drugs
Red Orbit: Cocaine 'Godmother' Released From Prison
Female Scarface
U.S. v. Griselda Blanco, 861 F.2d 773
Griselda Blanco – War with Pablo Escobar | Video, Check123 – Video Encyclopedia
1943 births
2012 deaths
20th-century Colombian LGBT people
20th-century criminals
21st-century Colombian LGBT people
Bisexual women
Cocaine in the United States
Colombian bisexual people
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Colombian drug traffickers
Colombian emigrants to the United States
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Medellín Cartel traffickers
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